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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Image from Wizards.com |
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Rootwater Thief
Reviewed March 9, 2004
Constructed: 3
Casual: 3.4
Limited: 3.5
Ratings are
based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ...
average.
5 is the highest rating
Click here to see all
our
Card of the Day Reviews
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Scott
Gerhardt
*
random guy who
does random reviews.
*A few
Pro Tours
*
Store owner in CA
*A
kinda flaky reviewer. |
Ah...Mike Long's
Legacy. After winning the invitational he
left us with a 1/2 Merfolk. I do find it
ironic that the man that no one can trust made a
card named for a profession of people not to be
trusted. I still laugh to this day on it.
I've played this
card...in a PTQ...successfully. Back in
the old combo-extended days, this thing was
golden at stripping out vital combo components
from a deck before they could draw into them.
It's decently useful. Never really saw too
much in the way of Type 2 play. These days
this card, like Mike Long, is simply a dead card
that no one really wants any more.
Seriously, enough
Long bashing for one night. Anything
flying isn't too bad in limited, especially when
it can strip the 2-3 bombs your opponent might
have. If the extended environment reverts
back to combo, this could potentially play
spoiler if fish become popular again.
In Casual play,
no one likes getting stuff stripped out.
You'll be on the bad end of the fish fry if you
play this thing.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 1.5
Limited: 3.5
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Chris
Gerhardt
*
game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut.com |
Rootwater Thief was
an invitational card designed by Mike Long, one of
the more infamous MTG players back in the day.
Even more unfortunately, Mike Long has lately
become better known for his MTG "infomercials"
hawking his "Get Rich Quick" or "Get Good Quick"
schemes by email. "I won the Junior Super
Series thanks to a conference call with
mega-legend-bordering-on-omnipotent Mike Long!
Just $169.95 and you, too, can be a lean, mean,
jedi-mind-tricking player!" Yeah, and
if you call within the next 10 minutes, he'll
throw in a free set of Ginzu knives. Gag me.
Anyhow, Thief works by
raping your opponent's library of key cards.
While it isn't effective against every deck, it
can certainly put a damper, or even demolish a
combo deck by removing just a few key components.
Remove those components from the game, and your
opponent loses their win condition and any chances
of pulling out a victory. Thief is fairly
low costed for it's ability. It won't work
against well-rounded decks, or something like
Goblins or Creature beats, as they have too many
components, so removing a few does almost nothing.
So the sideboard is where you will find this card
most useful. It doesn't' seem to have a home
at the moment though, so look for it:
In casual, if you are
running up against your friend's evil combo deck,
this guy might be just the ticket. Snag a few key
cards, and viola!
In limited, if you
opponent has something in his deck that you just
cannot deal with, its amazing. Slowly
dismantle his deck card by card. You could also
use it to send your opponent on a road to decking.
Not bad.
Constructed:
3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4
Current Price:
Rootwater
Thief $4.15
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Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
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Tuesday -
Rootwater Thief
The second Invitational card to be made, this
has a sabateur effect of being able to take a
card from your opponent's library and remove it
from the game. It originally didn't have an
activation cost to do this when Mike Long
submitted it, but playtesting showed that was
just too strong for the effect. It saw a little
play back when it was type 2, and sees some
rogue play these days, but by and large, this
has been a card without a home.
In casual duels, this is great, being able to
remove a bunch of win conditions before your
opponent has time to set up, if he is playing a
slow deck. I wouldn't play this in multiplayer,
as it will tend to focus the player's (or
players') wrath on you so the removal doesn't
have a chance to happen.
In limited, this was great to play. Cheap, had
an evasive ability, and removed your opponent's
bombs from their deck. Play this in Masques
Block Limited if you are playing blue.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 3
Limited: 4.5 |
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DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)
* pro tour player
* Scrye writer since 2002 |
Tuesday -
Rootwater Thief
Personally, I think that Mike Long is an alright
guy. I do remember all the jokes about this card
when it first came out. "It's funny that RT is
taken cards from you and it's Long's
invitational card.....shady business."
Regardless, the card gets limited playing time.
If you see in constructed, it's in the sideboard
more often than not.
In casual play, this guy is a favorite to play
and a pain to play against. In limited play,
this guy is a superstar.
Constructed: 3
Casual:4
Limited: 4.5 |
Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer
*Game Store Owner (Gamer's Edge) |
Rootwater Thief
Ahhh, Mike Long, what a deck hacker you are. You
know somewhere in the ability of Rootwater Thief
is an inside joke that you just can’t help but
chuckle at.
But in reality, Rootwater Thief is a great card.
In casual, he’s annoying while not being so
annoying that he makes you a Target. In
constructed, he’s great against control and
combo decks, pulling out their win conditions
and dismantling in their strategy. In limited,
just too slow. All in all though, a great
flavorful card.
Casual: 5
Constructed: 4
Limited: 1
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Jason
Matthews
* Level 1 DCI
Judge
*game store employee
* gaming for over 15 years |
Tuesday-Rootwater
Thief
This card is one of my favorite invitational
cards. It has a built in evasion ability to get
in the damage needed to use his ability. The
ability itself is why this creature is amazing.
You get to not only see the contents of the
opponents deck but you also get to remove a card
from. I remember having this guy just tear thru
my counter rebel deck. I think that if this guy
was going to be reprinted he would be at least
two blue mana. In limited this guy is a major
threat when you consider you are playing with
only forty cards and he flies. In casual play I
would definitely play him in a merfolk deck.
This card is one of my all time favorites.
Constructed 3.5
Casual 4
Limited 4.5 |
Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Rootwater Thief
Ah, Mike Long, how you favor us with a card that
just didn’t make it out of the sideboards. While
this certainly has been a nice sideboard addition
for any blue deck in order to fight combo-style
strategies, it just isn’t strong enough to push
into the main. A really clever Invitational card
that just doesn’t have the power it could.
I
don’t know if I could really call this card “good”
in limited, but it’s certainly really annoying. I
remember losing drafts after my opponent managed
to take 5-6 of my most relevant spells out of my
deck. His biggest problem is being stuck with the
rest of Masques-block for purposes of draft.
This guy seems like a pretty good amount of fun
for group games and such. Being able to pick on
people in this way is a part of what makes group
games fun, I think. Pretty much useless in Mental
Magic; you’ve got plenty else to do with U1,
anyway.
Constructed: 2.5
Limited: 2.5
Casual: 3.5
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Jason Chapman |
Rootwater Thief is
just an amazing card. It is a solid if not
particularly amazing creature as a 1/2 evasion
pick but the extra ability makes this card a
superstar. Manipulating and controlling the
opponent's deck as early as Turn 3 is simply
fantastic. This is a card that can fit into both
control and Fish builds and should have had more
of an impact on Magic then it did.
Constructed - A solid
choice for decks that can find the mana to support
it - 3
Limited - Evasion
and remove opponent's bombs - 4.5
Casual - Because
this card is generally underplayed I think casual
can make good use of it - 3.5 |
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Chase
Secret Squirrel
on the
Pojo.com
Message
Boards |
Rootwater Thief
Em… The card obviously hates combo decks.
Removing cards from the deck is never all that
useful unless you remove a restricted combo
piece. How many merfolk fly though? It doesn’t
really go with the merfolk theme of weenie, fast
damage.
In Casual…. Merfolk decks!!! or not.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 2.5 |
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